The present disclosure relates to a system method and apparatus for controllably calibrating and identifying spray heads and associated water delivery and control systems for use in brewing beverages.
A variety of beverage brewing apparatus have been developed which dispense heated water over a brewing substance which might include, by way of example, coffee, tea or any other brewing substance. The beverage brewing substance is saturated with heated water to produce a brewed beverage. The beverage is dispensed into a suitable container for serving or storage.
Such beverage brewing apparatus include a water dispensing system usually including some form of water heating device and lines connecting the water heating device to a spray head. Water dispensed to the spray head is distributed over the brewing substance. There may be a control device, either active or passive, associated with the water dispensing system for controllably delivering the water from the water heating device to the spray head.
It would be useful to controllably, accurately and repeatably dispense water to the brewing substance. While there are a variety of systems which can control the water flow from the water heating device to the spray head, there is no known control which controls a system depending on the spray head used with the system or accounts for variations between two or more spray heads connected to a water heating device.
By way of example but not limitation, brewers have been produced which provide a single hot water source, for example a heated water reservoir, which provides water to two or more spray heads. In this type of brewer, the single hot water source is connected by lines to each spray head. In such a brewing device there may be variations between the flow rate or dispensed volume of each spray head.
With the foregoing in mind, it would be useful to provide a system, method and apparatus for controlling the dispensing of heated water to one or more spray heads. It may also be useful to retain related control settings associated with the apparatus and at least the spray head for subsequent and repeatable use. It also could be desirable to include this feature as a recipe component for producing brewed beverage. Additionally, it may be useful to provide a system, method and apparatus for determining the flow rates of each spray head associated with the apparatus and setting these flow rates relative to the system. As yet an additional matter, it may be useful to calibrate the system for use with at least one and possibly two or more different spray heads. Each spray head associated with a separate system of the brewer yet receiving brewing water from a single water heating device.
Additional features and embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of drawings.
The exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiments of the disclosure that is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any manner.